Random ramblings of a mind damaged by years of disuse and abuse. Also a place to go to be bored to tears.

The Random Comic Strip

Words to live by...

"How beautiful it is to do nothing, and to rest afterward."

[Spanish Proverb]Ius luxuriae publice datum est

(The right to looseness has been officially given)

"Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders," wrote Ludwig von Mises, "no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interest, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle."

Apparently, the crossword puzzle that disappeared from the blog, came back.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Sometimes, Things Just Jump Out at You

It's a simple story, really. Police have a relatively minor crime to solve and they follow standard procedure. They get a description of the perpetrator from the victim and try to match that with known criminals. One of the things the police always ask is "Did the perpetrator have any distinguishing marks?"

In this case, the victim told them that he did... a tattoo of a lightning bolt on his face. Well, this eventually led them to a suspect (one Dylan Vok) who was identified by the victim of a robbery in a photo "line-up":

"so the authorities pulled Mr. Vok’s police photo, as well as ones of several other white men without tattoos, and they used Photoshop to paste Mr. Vok’s tattoo on all of their faces. They showed the array of photos to the victim, who picked Mr. Vok."

This is pretty standard procedure. The problem is, it turns out, that Mr. Vok was nowhere near the scene of the crime on Staten Island at the time the crime was committed. He was in Detroit. And, it turns out, Mr. Vok could prove that through records of his use of a food-stamp card.

Yes, Mr. Vok was being assisted in his daily life by the government. And this saved him a lot of trouble. In a sense, Mr. Vok's story is uplifting...

"Mr. Vok found his way to Detroit as it was crumbling toward bankruptcy [in 2011, months before the robbery], and said he managed to buy a house for less than $2,000 at an auction. He found work gardening and, later, exploring new technologies in self-sustaining agriculture and permaculture."

I won't ask how Mr. Vok, obviously destitute, decided to head for Detroit, find and buy a $2000 house. It is just fortunate he did. Because it saved him from going to prison.